Photography is what I do. More specifically landscape photography is what folk know me for, and yes, it is my favourite type (genre?) of photography. When I started off I followed every book that Charlie Waite wrote on the subject, avidly, and I have to say I learned a hell of a lot. One of these aspects was/is composition. The ‘guideline’ of thirds (I try to avoid the use of the word ‘rule’) was an enormous help in my honing my compositional skills. The use of key elements to pull the eye in and around, the careful use of colour, […]

Quite often I read posts on Facebook, or hear in camera clubs, from folk who loudly and proudly proclaim that the photographs that they show on here ARE STRAIGHT OUT OF THE CAMERA AND HAVE BEEN NOWHERE NEAR EDITING SOFTWARE! It is as if they have to prove some point or other and almost as if no-one ever, in the world, processed their work in a darkroom or a photo lab. I have shown below a shot I took in the Brecon Beacons yesterday; one untouched and in its RAW format, and the other, processed to bring the shot to life. RAW, […]

Here is a tip I learned whilst working with Charlie Waite (I know it’s name droppy but I really did) when I was a leader with Light & Land Photographic Holidays and it has never left me. I thought I should share it with you. This original advice particularly referred at the time to arches on a long spanned bridge, the point being made that an arch cut in half looks messy whereas there is a ‘thought through’ element if the arch is all included. This involves looking very carefully around all four edges of the frame when taking the shot […]

Sunsets – now, the sun generally sets at far more sociable hours and that is why, I have little doubt, there are so many more sunsets than sunrises bouncing around the photo world 🙂 Again, similar to sunrises, sunsets can be photographed for their own beauty or for the amazing light they can cast on the landscape. For example, I live near a beautiful stretch of coast, The Glamorgan Heritage Coast, which has stretches of yellowy, orangey oolitic limestone cliffs. This is a photography heaven as we now have choices of ‘into the sun’, and ‘with backs to the sun’, picking up […]

I am sure that there was a song named Sunrise Sunset? Who sang it I have no idea! Answers please, on a postcard….. I was asked just last Thursday by a good photo chum (Mark, you know who you are) about sunrises and sunsets. There is, and has been for a while, an opinion that these are just becoming so cliched that interest is waning. To a point I tend to agree – not with the quality of the photography necessarily, but with the sheer volume now ‘out there’. So, how can we shoot either or both of these beautiful […]

I am frequently asked by folk which is my favourite topic/subject for photographing. There is no straight answer to this BUT…I do love shooting waterfalls. Always have, always will. Now, there are two fairly powerful and differing schools of thought about these. To photograph them in a blur, or to capture every splash and drop? I have always maintained that this is the choice of the photographer; neither is right and neither is wrong. If I am judging a shot there is NO WAY I would judge it down purely on the basis of my preference. A well composed, technically sound […]

I have today returned from running a Freeespirit Images workshop in the depths of Mid Wales, timed to catch the autumn tints at their best. It would be true to say that the weather wasn’t blue sky or sunshine. In fact it was overcast for most of the time, but the group were very happy and we all got stuck in, with me showing them how best to capture the essence of autumn. This then got me wondering. Do we REALLY need sunny blue sky days to capture autumn at its best or can we make a decent fist of […]

During my workshops/1:1’s etc I habitually remind clients not to forget trying an upright or portrait version of what they are photographing. Without wishing to replace aesthetic values with commercialism, it is a fact that of all the stock photos I have sold repro rights in, the portrait photos are ahead in the order of 60% to 40%. That apart, sometimes the portrait format can really strengthen a photo (oh, ok then, image!) by concentrating the viewers eye on the specifics, especially if, off to the sides, are just trees, lake, sandy beach or nothing really strong enough to make […]

I may have covered this one before, but I was out wandering around the Brecon Beacons yesterday just doing what I call a ‘potter shoot’, pottering round just looking. One of the locations I visited was Pontsticill Reservoir, a long strip of water roughly north south orientated. It suddenly occurred to me just how much more dramatic the shot into the sun seemed. Not that there is necessarily anything wrong with the shot towards Pen y Fan with the sun behind me but…………..it just didn’t seem to have the ‘zing’ or just plain mood of the shot towards the sun. […]

Fairly recently there seems to have been a significant swapping of meaty DSLR (or indeed film) cameras for smaller, more compact, lighter and also mirrorless cameras. The comments read on Facebook and camera reviews all seem to contain the same theme. This generally hints at: “oh, my back”, or “can’t be doing lugging all this around” Friends and photo colleagues of mine have recently made the change, opting for Fuji, Olympus and others, just to get that weight down. Now – this might be because some of us are getting older and/or it might be because put simply, technology is […]